Apparatus for making phosphorus.



PATENTED JULY '7, 1903.

R. K. DUNCAN.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING PHOSPHORUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 8. 1901. RENEWED MAY 2, 1903.

N0 MODEL.

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UNIT D STATES- Patented July 7, 1903.

PATENT FFICE.

ROBERT K. DUNCAN, OF POTTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL CHEMICAL COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR" MAKING PHOSPHORUS.

fil'ECIFIOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 733,017, dated July '7, 1903.

Application filed May 8, 1901- Renewed May 2, 1903. Serial No. 155,428. (No model.) I

To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT K. DUNCAN, a

citizen of Canada, residing'at Pottstown, in

the county of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania, have invented'eertain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Producing Phosphorus, of which the following isa specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to an apparatus for carrying out the process for producing phosphorus embraced by my application, Serial No. 88,742, filed December 5, 1900.

The accompanying drawing is a diagrammatic illustration of my improved apparatus.

In practicing my new process phosphatic trio furnace, as A, into which suitable electrodes or extend for the purpose of producing an intense heat by electric sparking. A preliminary heating of the material in the furnace may be efiected by a hydrogen-burner b, using the hydrogen which is a by-product of the process. By this-operation calcium phosphid is formed, which is removed from the furnace into a receptacle B and then placed in a suitable generator, as C or CT, of

the type used for the generation of acetylene, where it is acted on by water running from a tank, as D, through pipes 02 to the said generator or generators, the action of the water on the calcium phosphid resulting in the formation of phosphin, which is conducted through pipese to a gasometer, as E. This phosphin is next preferably passed from the gasometer E through a pipe f to a dryingchamber F, filled with calcium phosphid, and the phosphin is then conducted through a pipe h to a heating-chamber H, preferably in the form of a tube of aluminium arranged within a jacket K, and beneath which heating chamber is a gas burner L, serving to heat it. In this heatingchamber the phosphin is broken down into phosphorus and hydrogen. The resulting phosphorus is either red or yellow phosphorus, according to the heat employed, which is regulated at the will of the operator. If red phosphorus be formed, it remains in the aluminium tube, while if it is of the yellow form it distils over and is collected under water in a suitable receptacle, as gasometer M, into which the resulting hydrogen is conducted from the heatingchamber H and from which it may be conducted by suitable pipes to both the burners b and L. The phosphorus is removed from beneath the water in a gasometerM through the valve on into a suitable receptacle, as m.

Myrinvention is not to be understood as 'being limited to the details of construction herein shown and described, as these details may be varied widely within the limits of mechanical skill without departing from the essence of the invention, which will of course include equivalents for the difierent parts of the particular apparatus herein shown and described.

I do not herein claim the new process herein described for producing phosphorus, as the same is embraced by my application, Serial No. 38,742, hereinbefore referred to; but

What I do claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The herein-described apparatus for producing phosphorus, consisting of the combination with a suitable electric-furnace adapted to heat the phosphatic materials intensely, of a phosphatic-decomposition chamber for treatment of the phosphid with water, a storage-tank for the phosphin evolved, a dryingchamber connected with said storage vessel, a heatingchamber for decomposing the phosphin, and a suitable receiver connected with said heating-chamber, to receive the products of decomposition.

In testimony whereof I affix my signatur in presence of two Witnesses.

ROBERT K. DUNCAN. Witnesses:

E. S. FRETZ, C. G. BAIN. 

